Women's History Month - Peace Pilgrim

Peace Pilgrim

(July 18, 1908 – July 7, 1981)

Mildred Lisette Norman, was a U.S. pacifist, vegetarian, and peace activist. In 1952, she became the first woman to walk the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in one season. Starting on January 1, 1953. In Pasadena, California, she adopted the name "Peace Pilgrim" and walked across the United States for 28 years.

A transcript of a 1964 conversation with Peace Pilgrim from a broadcast on KPFK radio in Los Angeles, California, was published as "Steps Toward Inner Peace". She stopped counting miles in that year, having walked more than 40,000 km (25,000 miles) for peace.

Mildred Norman was born on a poultry farm in Egg Harbor City, New Jersey, in 1908, the oldest of three children. Her mother, Josephine Marie Ranch, was a tailor, and her father, Ernest Norman, a carpenter. Although poor, the family were well-thought-of in a community of German immigrants, whose relatives originally settled the area after escaping Germany in 1855.

In 1933 she eloped with Stanley Ryder and moved to Philadelphia in 1939. They divorced in 1946.

Her pilgrimage spanned almost three decades beginning January 1, 1953, in Pasadena, California. The Korean War was in progress. She continued walking for 28 years, spanning the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and beyond. Peace Pilgrim was a frequent speaker at churches, universities, and local and national radio and television.

Expressing her ideas about peace, she referred to herself only as "Peace Pilgrim." Peace Pilgrim's only possessions were the clothes on her back and the few items she carried in the pockets of her blue tunic which read "Peace Pilgrim" on the front and "25,000 Miles on foot for peace" on the back.

She had no organizational backing, carried no money, and would not even ask for food or shelter. When she began her pilgrimage she had taken a vow to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food."

Peace Pilgrim was a strict vegetarian and did not use fur, feathers, leather or bone. Peace Pilgrim was an early advocate for tolerance for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. She did not believe in discrimination against any human being.

She was awarded the ‘Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award’ -1992

“In order for the world to become peaceful, people must become more peaceful. Among mature people war would not be a problem - it would be impossible. In their immaturity people want, at the same time, peace and the things which make war. However, people can mature just as children grow up. Yes, our institutions and our leaders reflect our immaturity, but as we mature we will elect better leaders and set up better institutions. It always comes back to the thing so many of us wish to avoid: working to improve ourselves.”-Peace Pilgrim

On July 7, 1981, while being driven to a speaking engagement near Knox, Indiana, Peace Pilgrim was killed in an automobile accident. At the time of her death, she was crossing the United States for the seventh time.

After her death, she was cremated, and her ashes were interred in a family plot near Egg Harbor City, New Jersey.

*****

Friends of Peace Pilgrim

Friends of Peace Pilgrim is an all-volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to making information about the life and message of Peace Pilgrim available freely to all who ask. Since 1983 they have published and distributed over 400,000 copies of the book, Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words, and over one and a half million copies of the booklet, Steps Toward Inner Peace. Books and booklets have been sent to over 100 countries. The book has been translated into twelve languages and the booklet into over 20 languages.

*****

I have been an admirer of this woman for many years. I keep a copy of her life and quotations on my coffee table for quick reference. Her only possessions were a comb, a toothbrush, a small notebook and a pencil, all of which she kept in the pockets of the tunic which she wore at all times. I often look around my home and imagine how liberating that would be to reduce my possessions to just basic needs. I have tried to down-size and I do lead a relatively simple lifestyle but I admire Peace Pilgrim for being so dedicated to the peace effort as to spend her every waking moment as an advocate for peace. I never met her but I have read accounts of people who were inspired just by being in her presence.

She led a quiet, gentle lifestyle, while having the courage to stand up for her convictions. My kind of person!

peacesojourner

Women's History Month - Eleanor Roosevelt

Women's History Month

Eleanor Roosevelt

ANNA ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
- 1884 - 1963

A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved women of her generation.

She was born in New York City on October 11, 1884, daughter of lovely Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt, younger brother of Theodore. Eleanor was eight when her mother died in 1892, the children went to live with Grandmother Hall; her adored father died only two years later. Attending a distinguished school in England gave her, at 15, her first chance to develop self-confidence among other girls.

Six feet tall, slender, graceful of figure but apprehensive at the thought of being a wallflower, she returned for a debut that she dreaded. In her circle of friends was a distant cousin, handsome young Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was 19 when they became engaged in 1903 and they were married in 1905. Within eleven years Eleanor bore six children; one son died in infancy.

Franklin served in the NY state Senate from 1910 to 1913 and Eleanor started her long career as political helpmate. When he was stricken with poliomyelitis in 1921, she tended him devotedly. From his successful campaign for governor in 1928 to the day of his death, she dedicated her life to his purposes. She became eyes and ears for him, a trusted and tireless reporter.

FDR and Mrs. Roosevelt came to the White House in 1933, and she understood social conditions better than any of her predecessors. She transformed the role of First Lady accordingly. She broke precedent to hold press conferences, travel to all parts of the country, give lectures and radio broadcasts, and express her opinions candidly in a daily syndicated newspaper column, "My Day."

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for African American contralto, Marian Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. With the aid of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Ms. Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. ER as usual stood up for civil rights and in protest wrote a letter of resignation. (see above)

Another example of her willingness to make change was during WWII, when due to racial discrimination, African American servicemen were not allowed to learn to fly until 1941, when African American college graduates were selected for what the Army called "an experiment" they were assigned to an airfield adjacent to Alabama's Tuskegee Institute. The experiment involved training black pilots and ground support members. The squadron, quickly dubbed the Tuskegee Airmen, was activated on March 22, 1941.
However, no-one would fly with an African American pilot. When Eleanor Roosevelt visited Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1941, she insisted on taking a ride in an airplane with a black pilot at the controls. ER's pilot was Charles Anderson. She then insisted that her flight with Anderson be photographed. Eleanor used this photograph as part of her campaign to convince FDR to activate the participation of the Tuskegee Airmen in North Africa and in the European Theater.
In June 1943, the Tuskegee Airmen entered into combat over North Africa. When the war ended, the Tuskegee Airmen returned home with one hundred and fifty Distinguished Flying Crosses, its success would contribute to the eventual integration of the United States military.

Eleanor was First Lady for 12 years. An outspoken advocate of social justice, she became a moral force during the Roosevelt administration, using her position as First Lady to promote social causes. As a nationally syndicated columnist, popular lecturer, author, party leader, and social activist, ER assured her friends that "my voice will not be silent. ER dedicated her unstinting energy to "winning the peace."

FDR died in 1945 and within a year she began her service as American spokesperson in the United Nations. She became the champion of human rights — dignity, security, respect for all people; and diplomatic justice between nations. Eleanor Roosevelt’s life was dedicated to the eradication of poverty, racism, war and despair.

*****

I have always admired Eleanor Roosevelt, especially her willingness to stand up for others. I am also encouraged to know that a letter written in protest could still be talked about 73 years later. It takes courage to make change in the world and Eleanor Roosevelt is an excellent example of that.

peacesojourner

Women's History Month - Eleanor Roosevelt

Resignation letter written by Eleanor Roosevelt to the Daughters of the American Revolution

Women's History Month -12 Nobel Peace Laureates

Women Nobel Peace Laureates

I was planning to choose one of the following women to write about but I couldn't decide which one. Twelve women have received the Nobel Peace Prize, all of whom have dedicated their lives to peace.

Here they are:

1. Baroness Bertha von Suttner -Nobel Peace Prize, 1905

A friend of Alfred Nobel, Baroness Bertha von Suttner was a leader in the international peace movement in the 1890s, and she received support from Nobel for her Austrian Peace Society. When Nobel died, he bequeathed money for four prizes for scientific achievements, and one for peace. Though many (including, perhaps, the Baroness) expected the peace prize to be awarded to her, three other individuals and one organization were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize before the committee named her in 1905.

2. Jane Addams - Nobel Peace Prize, 1931 (shared with Nicholas Murray Butler)

Jane Addams, best known as the founder of Hull-House, a settlement house in Chicago, was active in peace efforts during World War I with the International Congress of Women. Jane Addams also helped to found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was nominated numerous times, but the prize went each time to others, until 1931. She was, by that time, in ill health, and could not travel to accept the prize.

3. Emily Greene Balch - Nobel Peace Prize, 1946 (shared with John Mott, YMCA)

A friend and co-worker of Jane Addams, Emily Balch also worked to end World War I and helped to found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was a professor of social economics at Wellesley College for 20 years, but was fired for her World War I peace activities. Though a pacifist, Balch supported the American entry into World War II.

4. & 5. Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan - Nobel Peace Prize, 1976

They founded the Northern Ireland Peace Movement. Betty Williams, a Protestant, and Mairead Corrigan, a Catholic, came together to work for peace in Northern Ireland, organizing peace demonstrations that brought together Roman Catholics and Protestants, protesting violence by British soldiers, Irish Republican Army (IRA) members (Catholics), and Protestant extremists.

6. Mother Teresa - Nobel Peace Prize, 1979

Born in Skopje, then in Yugoslavia, Mother Teresa founded theMissionaries of Charity in India and focused on serving the dying. She was skilled at publicizing her order's work and thus financing the expansion of its services. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her "work in bringing help to suffering humanity." She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.

7. Alva Myrdal - Nobel Peace Prize, 1982 (shared with Alfonso GarcíaRobles)

Alva Myrdal, a Swedish economist and advocate of human rights, as well as a United Nations department head (the first woman to hold such a position) and Swedish ambassador to India, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with a fellow disarmament advocate from Mexico, at a time when the disarmament committee at the UN had failed in its efforts.

8. Aung San Suu Kyi - Nobel Peace Prize, 1991

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose mother was ambassador to India and fatherde facto prime minister of Burma (Myanmar), won election but was denied the office by a military government. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent work for human rights and independence in Burma (Myanmar). She has spent most of her time since 1989 under house arrest or imprisoned by the military government for her dissident work.

9. Rigoberta Menchú Tum -Nobel Peace Prize, 1992

Rigoberta Menchú was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for "ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples."

10. Jody Williams - Nobel Peace Prize, 1997 (shared with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, ICBL)

Jody Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

11. Shirin Ebadi - Nobel Peace Prize, 2003

Iranian human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi was the first person from Iran and the first Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.

12. Wangari Maathai - Nobel Peace Prize, 2004

Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt movement in Kenya in 1977, which has planted more than 10 million trees to prevent soil erosion and provide firewood for cooking fires. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to be named a Nobel Peace Laureate, honored "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."

*****

The Nobel Peace Prize is an award presented to either an individual or an organization in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s living will. Alfred Nobel, was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He disposed the Nobel Peace Prize in his will to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The prize can be awarded for current efforts, rather than for having accomplished a goal or resolved an issue.

*****

An amazing group of women to whom we owe so much. All of whom had the courage to stand up for others and speak out, even when it may have been unpopular to do so.

peacesojourner

Women's History Month - Helen Caldicott

A personal mission to literally “save the world”

from nuclear destruction.

Earlier this month I mentioned that during Women’s History Month I would be writing about some women that I admire. I would like to introduce you to Dr. Helen Caldicott, a woman who has dedicated her life to working for peace. Her list of achievements is incredible. She is the most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crisis. The Smithsonian Institute has named her as one of the most influential women of the 20th Century.

"During the early portion of the twenty-first century, space power will also evolve into a separate and equal medium of warfare ... The emerging synergy of space superiority with land, sea, and air superiority will lead to Full Spectrum Dominance." - from U.S. Space Command Vision for 2020

When most of us think about the potential of outer space for future generations, we think of world communications, satellite navigation, and scientific exploration. U.S. Space Command, however, thinks about weapons. Believing that conflict in space and wars fought from space are inevitable, former President Bush called on the agency to weaponize outer space and thus provoke an arms race that could cost the United States trillions of dollars and could lead to the demise of the human race.

Helen Caldicott is recognized in every corner of the globe as the most visible advocate for peace in the world. In association with physicians and scientists, Dr. Caldicott and Bill Caldicott played a major role to educate the people of New Zealand and Australia about the vast dangers to health of nuclear production and development. Physician, humanist, impassioned advocate for nuclear disarmament and a true woman of peace is Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Dr. Helen Caldicott.

AWARDS/HONORS:
Nobel Peace Prize nominee
Peace Medal Award – U. N. Association of Australia- shared with her husband Bill Caldicott
Integrity Award (John-Roger Foundation), which she shared with Bishop Desmond Tutu
Peace Award (American Association of University Women)
SANE Peace Award
Gandhi Peace Prize

She is the author of the following books:

- Nuclear Madness

- Missile Envy,

- A Desperate Passion- An Autobiography

- If You Love This Planet

- Nuclear Madness

- The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush’s Military Industrial Complex (2001)

- Nuclear Power is Not the Answer (2006)

- War In Heaven (March 2007).

(In War in Heaven, Caldicott and Eisendrath show that the United States itself is today the principal obstruction to passage of an international treaty banning weapons from outer space.)

She has developed dozens of video tapes and films, written scores of articles which have appeared in nearly every major newspaper and magazine; spoken at major universities throughout the world and has met with heads of state everywhere.

Dr Caldicott, has devoted the last 36 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, August 7, 1938, Dr Caldicott received her medical degree from the University of Adelaide Medical School in 1961. She founded the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at the Adelaide Children's Hospital and devoted herself to the treatment of children afflicted with cystic fibrosis until 1975 and subsequently was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and on the staff of the Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, Mass., until 1980 when she resigned to work full time on the prevention of nuclear war.

In 1971, Dr Caldicott played a major role in Australia's opposition to French atmospheric nuclear testing in the Pacific; in 1975 she worked with the Australian trade unions to educate their members about the medical dangers of the nuclear fuel cycle, with particular reference to uranium mining.

While living in the United States from 1977 to 1986, she co-founded the Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization of 23,000 doctors committed to educating their colleagues about the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear weapons and nuclear war. The international umbrella group (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. She also founded the Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND) in the US in 1980.
Both PSR and WAND have been at the forefront of the nuclear-freeze movement ever since. International PSR received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. For more than two decades she has tirelessly and eloquently spoken to groups around the world on behalf of nuclear disarmament.
She moved back to the United States in 1995, lecturing at the New School for Social Research on the Media, Global Politics and the Environment, hosting a weekly radio talk show on WBAI (Pacifica), and becoming the Founding President of the STAR (Standing for Truth About Radiation) Foundation.

Dr Caldicott has received many prizes and awards for her work, most recently the Lannan Foundation's 2003 Prize for Cultural Freedom, 19 honorary doctoral degrees.
She also has been the subject of several films, including Eight Minutes to Midnight, nominated for an Academy Award in 1981, 'If You Love This Planet', which won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1982, and 'Helen’s War: portrait of a dissident', recipient of the Australian Film Institute Awards for Best Direction (Documentary) 2004, and the Sydney Film Festival Dendy Award for Best Documentary in 2004.

Dr Caldicott currently divides her time between Australia and the US where she lectures widely. She is also the Founder and President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI), headquartered in Washington DC. NPRI’s mission is to facilitate a far-reaching, effective, ongoing public education campaign in the mainstream media about the often-underestimated dangers of nuclear weapons and power programs and policies.

*****

I really admire Dr. Caldicott who has dedicated her life's work to global peace and

I feel safer knowing that she currently makes it a full time mission to prevent nuclear war.

Doris "Granny D" Haddock dies at the age of 100 years

Doris "Granny D" Haddock (January 24, 1910 – March 9, 2010) was an American politician and liberal political activist from New Hampshire.

This week I learned of the death of activist Doris Haddock of Dublin, N.H., better known as Granny D. I first met her 10 years ago when she visited Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She was 90 years old when she completed her 3,200 miles journey across the country to lobby for campaign finance reform – starting on January 1, 1999 and culminating on February 29, 2000,

She died on Tuesday March 9, at the age of 100. A former housewife and office assistant, Doris was happily retired for over twenty years–but when her husband died, she needed a reason to live. So at the age of 90, she laced up her sneakers and walked across America to rally against the influence of big money in elections. Her epic journey galvanized popular attention to a political system gone awry.

Unfortunately, candidates who can raise the most money still win elections. It’s a system where, as Granny D put it “a poor man has to sell his soul to get elected.”

Granny D ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate in 2004, continued to press Congress to plug campaign loopholes in campaign laws that allowed so-called “soft money” from corporations, and other interest groups trying to influence political campaigns.

Campaign reform efforts were dealt another blow in January when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to reverse a century-long trend to limit the power of corporations in American elections. The decision overruled two precedents – a 1990 decision that upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates and a 2003 decision that upheld the McCain-Feingold law that restricted campaign spending by corporations and unions.

It will take leadership, courage and the perseverance shown by Granny D, during her second career as a political activist to change the way politics is played in America.

“Never be discouraged from being an activist because people tell you that you’ll not succeed,” she wrote. “You are succeeding if you are out there representing truth or justice or compassion or fairness or love.”

There are many miles left to go before Granny D’s dream is realized. But hers are words to live by.

As I listened to this small, energetic, feisty, then 90-year-old lady who had just walked 3,200 miles across the continental United States, I was filled with encouragement and renewed energy that one should continue to speak up when we see or hear something that we feel needs to be changed. Sometimes it can be a lonely struggle but then people like Granny D enter our lives and we are inspired to continue on.

During her walk, while following her daily regimen of ten miles, she wrote nightly for two hours. The result was a journal that is a multilayered memoir, roadside nature field book, and philosophical summation of a life well spent. She spoke fondly of people who she had met on her journey. Her book is full of portraits of the countless citizens who welcomed, joined, cared for, and walked with her. Her graceful descriptions of the kindness routinely shown her are collectively a stunning portrait of the American soul.

*****

"You're Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell." Granny D.

*****

God bless you Granny D and thank you for all of the work that you did while here on earth and for giving us the inspiration to continue to speak out and stand up against injustices of the world.